Hard Rock Café says it was evicted yesterday afternoon from the MovieTowne patio by management of the mall.
“At approximately 16.00hrs, the Management of the Movie Towne Mall moved to evict the popular café from its patio for ‘unpaid rent’. Despite agreeing with the owners of Hard Rock Café to allow them to use the area rent-free. This move by the Mall’s management will severely threaten the operation of the restaurant that called the mall home for its inception”, Hard Rock said in a brief statement yesterday.
When Stabroek News visited the Hard Rock Café yesterday afternoon, they were open for business and customers were inside.
However, the chairs and tables from the patio were packed on top of each other and placed together at the corner. The patio was clear.
Upon entering the café, customers were stopped and questioned before they were allowed to enter.
Outside of the café there were at least six staff members including security. When Stabroek News asked to speak to a member of the management team, this newspaper was told that they were all “busy” and would not be able to engage with this newspaper.
On the western side of the café, there is an entrance which can be used to access the café from the patio. However, that door was closed and a sign said: ‘Please use next entrance’.
Hard Rock on their Facebook page last night announced that they are open for business.
“Please be advised that we are open and our steak special is available tonight! We also have a live performance by Baby Spoon Band International,” the post read.
Another post stated that Maxine Marketing Inc, the franchise holder is a 100% Guyanese-owned company and it was not closing down. Meanwhile, the Supervisor of ‘Operations’ at the mall told Stabroek News that he was not aware of the issue. As such, he would not be able to provide details. At the time when this newspaper visited, the supervisor said that members of the management team had already left for the day. As such, he recommended that they be contacted this morning.
